Heart of Darkness Explores Darkness as a Place of Freedom, Fear, or Fantasy

Borrowing its title from Joseph Conrad’s 1899 narrative about the paternalistic arrogance of imperialism, the Walker Art Center exhibition

Heart of Darkness

features three large-scale environments by artists Thomas Hirschhorn, Kai Althoff, and Ellen Gallagher and Edgar Cleijne that address the complex and ever-present conflicts between desire and possession, power and equality. The exhibition, on view October 21–January 14, articulates the notion of darkness as a fantastical territory of wonderment and possibly enlightenment. Working with fairy tales, science fiction, printed matter, and archival imagery, the artists invite us to enter their uncanny fictitious worlds. In darkness, their monumental pieces cover a broad range of references, from Plato’s allegory of the cave to Freud’s studies of marine anatomy. The preview party to celebrate the opening of Heart of Darkness on Friday, October 20, marks the return of

Walker After Hours

. Sponsored by Target, the evening features music by Mike Gunther and His Restless Souls; screenings of films by Cameron Jamie; and appetizers by Wolfgang Puck Catering. (A complete listing of related events follows.)

Heart of Darkness begins with Althoff’s Solo für eine befallen Trompete (Solo for an Afflicted Trumpet) (2005), a walk-in maze of drawings, paintings, and occasionally eerie artifacts. The artist envisioned an uninhibited room, a sort of sovereign land where bourgeois codes of order, tidiness, and beauty are suspended. As if arranged by a compulsive mind, these objects construct a surreal web of associations blending memory and fantasy, seduction and violence. Deep emotions are at the heart of Althoff’s art, as he explains: “I think my work is much more about ‘love,’ if I dare say that: things that I don’t get from love, things that I love or want to love, or that I want to love me.”

In the second gallery is Murmur: Watery Ecstatic, Kabuki, Blizzard of White,
Super Boo, Monster (2003), a 16mm film installation by Gallagher and Cleijne. The artists conceived a series of mythical universes using a variety of techniques, including clay and stop-frame animation as well as etching and painting on found filmstrips. Visitors will travel through a labyrinth of lights mapping the gallery space where “the voyage itself becomes a kind of origin myth,” says Gallagher, unfolding an apocalyptic revelation of a lawless territory.

The exhibition concludes with Hirschhorn’s Cavemanman (2002). Composed of five interconnected rooms, this walk-in “cave” presents a series of philosophical trails that traverse capitalist ideological paths and subterranean anarchist passageways. In their journey through this manmade cavern, viewers will encounter information overload; dozens of books; a video monitor showing footage of Lascaux II (a theme-park recreation of the prehistoric painted caves in Montignac, France); a series of clocks that tell the time in different cities; and other paraphernalia perhaps belonging to a hermetic inhabitant in search of an alternative world in which all human beings are equal.

The artists’ propositions, filled with idealism, poetry, and sometimes humor, visualize a space independent of social conventions and xenophobia, where different experiences of love, approval, racial and sexual identification, and equality could exist. In contrast to Conrad’s novel, the nonconformist idealism and fervent irrationality of these works propose a quixotic, alternative view of the world.

Accompanying the exhibition is an illustrated catalogue containing a critical essay by Walker deputy director and chief curator Philippe Vergne and interviews with the artists.

Media partner Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.

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Pre-Opening Event

Target Free Thursday Nights

Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn says he is interested in the idea of “doing too much, giving too much, putting too much of an effort into something.” His cluttered and chaotic large-scale installations, that take place inside galleries and out in the world, communicate this attraction to excess. For this talk, Hirschhorn will focus on his 2004 project, Musée Précaire Albinet (The Precarious Museum), staged in the suburbs of Paris. Set up as a satellite museum, the installation was run by local residents and featured artworks borrowed from the Centre Georges Pompidou. Join the artist for a lecture about this piece and other projects, including Cavemanman (2002), on view in Heart of Darkness, plus a discussion about utopian ideals, interactivity, and politics in art. This talk will be webcast live and archived at channel.walkerart.org.

Celebrate the return of After Hours with a Heart of Darkness exhibition preview and party. Come for the culture and the cocktails. Experience immersive worlds created by Thomas Hirschhorn, Kai Althoff, and Ellen Gallagher and Edgar Cleijne before the exhibition opens to the public. Explore your creative side in the Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab. Groove to live music in Gallery 8 Café. See Cameron Jamie’s films in the Cinema. Enter the Rant or Rave prize drawing. Enjoy a Targetini and relaxing break in the Target Lounge.

Kranky Klaus (2002–2003, color, video, 26 minutes; sound track by the Melvins) Commissioned and produced by Artangel in association with the Centre Pompidou, Paris, with the support of the Delegation aux arts plastiques, Ministere de la Culture, France

Spook House (2003, color video, 19 minutes; sound track by the Melvins) Commissioned and produced by Artangel in association with the Centre Pompidou, Paris, with the support of the Delegation aux arts plastiques, Ministere de la Culture, France

Performance: Mike Gunther and His Restless Souls

Gallery 8 Café, 9–11:15 pm
Tip one back, breathe deep, and take in the slow-burn blues and revival tent theatrics of Mike Gunther and His Restless Souls. With one eye looking for trouble, the other for mercy, Gunther leads a parade of eclectic players as they romp amid the shadows and flames of his distinctly American songs steeped in the pleasure of sin and the promise of salvation.

Win Prizes with a Rant or Rave

Share your thoughts about the selected “rant or rave” artwork and enter to win great prizes, including Target gift certificates, and more.

Walker After Hours sponsored by Target.

Target Free Thursday Nights

Thursday, October 12

Artist Talk: Thomas Hirschhorn, 7 pm

Thursday, November 2

Book Club

The Artist’s Bookshelf: American Gods by Neil Gaiman, 7 pm

Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Free, reservations required. Call 612.375.7600.
The artists in Heart of Darkness create fictional worlds that explore darkness as a fantastical site of wonder. Likewise, author Neil Gaiman mines the shadows of life for his stories. Dark, mythological, and slightly sci-fi, American Gods takes the reader on an epic journey through an underworld populated by deities gone awry. Before the book club, explore these themes during a tour of the exhibition at 6 pm. For discussion questions and author interviews, visit blogs.walkerart.org/ecp. Books are available in the Walker Shop and at the Minneapolis Public Library (www.mplib.org). Presented in partnership with the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library.

Thursday, December 7

Book Club

The Artist’s Bookshelf: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, 7 pm

Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Free, reservations required. Call 612.375.7600.
Narrated by a 70-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, Krauss’ novel is a literary labyrinth that stirs up heavy emotions of loneliness, loss, and love. These themes are also found in the cluttered, uninhibited rooms of Kai Althoff’s installation in Heart of Darkness. Prep for the discussion during a tour of the exhibition at 6 pm. For discussion questions and author interviews, visit blogs.walkerart.org/ecp. Books are available in the Walker Shop and at the Minneapolis Public Library (www.mplib.org). Presented in partnership with the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library.

Target Free Thursday Nights sponsored by Target. Additional support provided by the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

Free First Saturday

Lights Out!

Saturday, November 4, 10 am–5 pm, Free
During this fun-filled family day participants will make glow-in-the-dark wearable art; attend a Kids Disco Party complete with black lights and a disco ball; watch a performance of a glow-in-the-dark ping pong ball circus by Circus Minimus Puppetry; and more.